Peter Dempsey Goes from Last to First to Win Race 1 at Indianapolis

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Peter Dempsey Goes from Last to First to Win Race 1 at Indianapolis

It was a bright and early start for the GT America powered by AWS field on Saturday morning for their first race of the weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the field wasted no time getting their elbows out and making moves up and down the order. After a thrilling chase that went all the way to the final minutes, Peter Dempsey and Risi Competizione claimed the win in their first appearance of the year. 

SRO3 Class

Memo Gidley, the 2026 SRO3 Champion, started on pole position, a vantage point he has been very familiar with this season in his No. 56 SKI Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVOII.

However, all eyes quickly turned to new entrant Peter Dempsey in the No. 100 Risi Competizione Maserati MC20 GT2. After starting at the back of the field, he wasted no time getting up to speed, quickly moving up to third by the end of the opening lap. From there, he set his focus on Tony Davis in second before completing the overtake.

Gidley remained 1.5 seconds up the road in first as the first 10 minutes of the sprint elapsed, and Gidley continued to gradually stretch his lead as the clock wound down. 

Tony Davis in the No. 04 HP-TECH Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO was hanging on to P3, but Mirco Shultis tried to raise a challenge just behind in fourth on board his No. 70 MISHUMOTORS Callaway Corvette C7 GT3-R. 

However, Scott Blind attempted to pull off an attack as well in his No. 45 Ruckus Racing Porsche 911 GT3-R (992) EVO, diving late into the corner on Mirco, who was ready and defended the position. 

The battle between the two allowed Ross Chouest to get in closer in his No. 50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Chouest was late on the brakes into the inside of Turn 1, forcing Blind wide and leaving him vulnerable as the door then opened for Marc Muzzo and Joel Cortes to sweep past as well in their respective No. 013 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3 and No. 19 RS1 Porsche 911 GT3-R (992) machines. 

Just after the halfway mark, Chouest found his time to strike on Schultis for fourth place, and then placed his attention on Davis up ahead in the final podium position. With fifteen minutes remaining, he ran him down and moved into the final podium slot.

At the front, the battle was far from over. As the race progressed, Dempsey continued to cut into Gidley’s advantage. While Gidley kept hitting his marks, Dempsey managed to find his opportunity to pull off the overtake with just under three minutes remaining to promote himself to the lead of the race.

Gidley tried with all his might to retake the position on the final lap, with Dempsey held strong to take the checkered flag, winning on debut. With the victory, Dempsey also secured the fastest lap of the race, scoring pole position for Race 2 on Sunday. 

“ This was a great day for Maserati here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” said Peter Dempsey. “It’s been a long time since they raced here, so to deliver a victory for them was fantastic for their brand here in the United States. Obviously, any time you have a chance to win at the Indy is an extremely special occasion. It was made a lot more exciting having to start from P12 and drive my way through the field. I had a great race with Memo, the whole time I was just trying to see where I could try and sneak past him in traffic. I got lucky, he got some delayed traffic on the back straight and I was able to pass him on the brakes into T7 and just tried to bring it home from there. It was a really great day and now we’re focused on tomorrow to try to do the same thing.” 

GT4 and Cup Class

The GT4 class saw Damir Hot claim the victory in his No. 25 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport in what was his first race of the season in the GT America series. However, after a season-long campaign with just one more race remaining, it was Craig Lumsden who claimed the class title with his No. 413 Colorado Motorsport with Flying Lizard BMW M4 GT4 (G82) EVO.


Cup competitor David Lecko also wrapped up Race 1 at Indianapolis in his debut season as class champion with the No. 89 RacingSupport Ginetta GTP8, a perfect send-off as he looks ahead to competing in the Pirelli GT4 America series next year.



Let’s Get Racing

The GT America powered by AWS will return to the track for Race 2 on Sunday morning, October 11th at 9:35 AM ET. 

If you can’t make it to Indy, be sure to tune-in to SRO’s free live streams all weekend long on SRO RaceControl, YouTube (GTWorld) and Twitch (SROMotorsports) and follow all the action through our social media channels and the event hashtag #Indy8H.